As a native New Yorker myself, I can recall walking through Times Square in 1971 back when 42nd Street was called the Deuce. I remember seeing the massage parlors, the strip clubs, and the drunkies on the street. I was eight years old a the time and I was scared to death. A decade later, I couldn’t get enough of the peep palaces (it was all about Show World), dive bars and massive movie theaters showing kung-fu flicks. While many folks think of Times Square as an erotic (and exotic) playground, it was also a legitimate business and showbiz district. In one brief moment of The Deuce‘s first episode, we see a “working girl” passing a woman on her way to work; those few seconds of screen time said a lot to me about how the city operated at that time.

I really really really liked the first episode of this series. It's like fantasy world building to get into that much detail and scope. And it completely beats the pants off some feature film attempts like "American Hustle" with it's fake wigs and theatrical costume mood.

It seemed cool. I'm just not sure i want to watch a whole series around pimps and prostitutes. The birth of the porn industry in New York seems more interesting with all its oddball characters. They got the details better than any recent movie I've seen. But where was all the noise, it was so quiet. The streets sounds should as much a character as the visuals. I also felt most of the actors accents were off with the exception of James Franco. Most of them talked to modern. Every generation has its own accents, venacular, and body language and when its not there it feels off.

Those are some cool clips up there. Funny about that quote about the suburbs killing the city. I just saw Close Encounters on it's re-release and that was a careful sort of constructed documentation of the textures of mid 70's suburbia. All the details were included, from the fast food to the TV shows. They very carefully choose to include all these things from life at the time.

It seemed cool. I'm just not sure i want to watch a whole series around pimps and prostitutes. The birth of the porn industry in New York seems more interesting with all its oddball characters.

Isn't this exactly what the series is about?

Yeah. I'm saying I find that angle more interesting than the pimp and prostitue storyline. Maybe becuase there have been so many films and documentaries about the subject over the years, it just seems to be well worn subject matter.

Those are some cool clips up there. Funny about that quote about the suburbs killing the city. I just saw Close Encounters on it's re-release and that was a careful sort of constructed documentation of the textures of mid 70's suburbia. All the details were included, from the fast food to the TV shows. They very carefully choose to include all these things from life at the time.

Here's an interesting clip about the depicitng of a nightmarish New York in the 70s and 80s to the cureent depiction of the gentrified, fantasyland.